Goodbye, Lemmy

virpi

Germany3599 Posts

December 29 2015 19:56 GMT

Today is a sad day. Lemmy is dead. He died to cancer only four days after his 70th birthday.

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I'm sitting here, listening to my favourite Motörhead songs and I'm crying like a baby. Words can't express what Motörhead's music means to me. They rocked. They rolled. The seriously kicked fucking ass. Over 40 years, Lemmy and his band have been playing mostly the same song over and over again.

Wait, the same song? Basically, yes. But it was the only song they needed to play. It was the blues, combined with high-speed drumming, crazy guitar riffs and Lemmy's "Rickenbastard" bass chords. And on top, there were Lem's vocals. Rough, pure, angry. That's what whiskey and cigarettes do to your vocal chords, baby.

Let's start things off with their most famous song:

This song combines everything that's great about Motörhead: Fast riffing, gritty vocals and lyrics of overboarding confidence and ignorance:

"You know I'm born to lose
And gambling's for fools
But that's the way I like it baby
I don't wanna live forvever.
(And don't forget the joker)"

In his later days, Lemmy used to sing "But apparently I am" instead of the final line. Well, he was wrong.

But sobbing is most certainly not what's appropriate. Lemmy knew who would kill him one day and he wrote a song about it:

A very fitting Youtube comment: "I don't always listen to motorhead but when I do, my neighbors do too."

That's the essence of Motörhead. You have to play their music loud. And by loud I mean VERY FUCKING LOUD. Rock music has become a mere shadow of its former glory, which is understandable as times and musical trends are always a-changing.

But Motörhead's way of playing rock and roll music will survive. They understood the basics and made the most out of them. Just listen to this amazing song:

I was lucky enough to see them live in 2006 and 2008. They killed it. Two hours of beautiful, ear-wrecking noise. They were Motörhead and they played rock'n'roll.

But there was another side to the band. Lemmy was far away from being a dumb alcoholic who only could sing about booze and bitches. He always had been interested in history, politics and philosophy and wrote some of the most touching rock ballads of all time. Two prime examples:

(about a boy soldier in world war one)

(about the uselessness of institutionalized religion)

Here's my favourite Motörhead song. It's from their very underrated album "Bastards", which was released in 1993. It's one of those few songs who manage to make me feel happy and sad at the same time.